Re: backing up LVM volumes
Bernard <bdebreil@teaser.fr> wrote:
> On my previous systems, I used to create overall backups of partitions,
> using 'SystemRescueCD'. This is no longer possible ever since 2007 that
> I have a RAID1 mirroring system on my Debian.
You used to boot from SystemRescueCD and backup the partitions
corresponding to the (unmounted) filesystems block by block? Or you
mounted them and backed up the (mounted) filesystems?
You can continue to do either of these that even though you've got RAID1
and LVM. Start up RAID1 and LVM, and then back up the logical partitions
(or filesystems) that result. Ignore the physical ones.
> SystemRescueCD does not backup LVM volumes, or, if it does, that must
> be a very new feature, and I have not found any doc on this.
TBH I'm not aware of any backup feature within SystemRescueCD, but there
are many useful tools there. I've successfully fixed up software RAID1
configurations, and it must work with LVM because most of my systems'
filesystems are based on RAID1/LVM combinations and it works for me.
> So, what should I do so as to backup my system ? I once tried 'dd', but
> I think I remember it took forever [...]
Without the bs argument you would have been reading the disk 512bytes
at a time. Try bs=1000k for better throughput.
> I don't really know whether I would have been able to use the resulting
> file to successfully restore the partitions if needed.
How do you know any of your backups work? Test them!
> Could someone suggest something that has been successfully tried ? Even
> 'dd' could do, if it is OK with LVM and if I get some details. I
> understand that I would have to unmount the partitions, but this is not
> a problem. I have two IDE mirrored disks of 200 GB each.
LVM provides a snapshot mode for this kind of requirement. It's not
stunning but it's usually sufficient.
Chris
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